Fairy Lights
by CassetteTapes
Summary: Fairy Lights Nadine/Elizabeth Christmas in the State Department consists of tree decorating, hot cocoa, and love. Disclaimer: I do not own Madam Secretary or make any profit off this


**Fairy Lights**

 **Nadine/Elizabeth**

 **Christmas in the State Department consists of tree decorating, hot cocoa, and love.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Madam Secretary or make any profit off this**

Elizabeth rode to the State Department in silence, huddled up to the wall heater as the Maryland air nipped at her cheeks from outside. The sun was barely peaking through the frost covered trees and the world was painted in bleak shades of white, periwinkle, and grey. The lampposts that dotted the street were wrapped in golden lights and topped off by a wreath. Some of the nearby cafes and shops were adorned with holiday decorations as well.

As they approached the State Department, Elizabeth tightened her scarf and pulled her jacket more snugly around herself. She then proceeded to hop out of the car and into the chilly morning. It took all her self-control not to dash to the entrance as fast as she could, but when she did make it inside she sighed with relief. Taking the elevator up to the seventh floor she kept blowing on her icy hands. Having been in too much of a rush this morning, she had forgotten her gloves in the kitchen.

The elevator door opened revealing Blake, standing ready with her coffee and the day's assessment. "Good morning Blake."

"Good morning ma'am, we have several things to do this morning. A call with the Foreign Minister of China.." At Elizabeth worried look he added quickly, "Just a formality. Putting the last finishing touches on the peace agreement with Pakistan and Indian, and a review on the options for next years first international visit."

"Okay great, thank you Blake." She nodded, taking a sip of her coffee and heading towards the conference room.

 _time leap_

Half of the day had passed and most of the day's agenda had been successfully completed. Well…minus her "formality" talk with the Chinese Minister. She was now sitting in her office, stabbing her salad without looking where her fork was landing because she was preoccupied with talking to Nadine. "The audacity of the man."

"You're telling me." Nadine agreed, rolling her eyes and winding the noodles around her fork. She was sitting across from Elizabeth, a binder spread out beside her and her glasses shoved messily into her black curls.

"Who even tries to take back pandas?! Especially now, right before Christmas!"

"The Chinese, apparently. It's a show of control, symbolism, a power play if you will." Nadine answers, unsuccessfully trying to stab a peanut in her Asian noodles.

"Oh screw symbols! Do you know how many people will loose it when this hits the news?!" She gestures wildly with her fork, sending a piece of salad flying across the room.

"I think that's what they're going for."

"Ugh, we're going to have to stay late now and there's supposed to be a huge snow storm today." Elizabeth groaned.

Nadine's phone chimed on the table beside her and she picked it up, struggling to pull the glasses from her hair to read the message, "Well you're day is about to get worse because Russell Jackson is _pissed."_

"About the pandas?!" Elizabeth asked, incredulously.

"It appears so."

"When does he want to talk?"

"He doesn't, he say he has better things to do then deal with your foolish slip up but he expresses his _immense concern about the Chinese's intentions and demands that you fix it immediately." Nadine says, putting her phone back down._

"Okay well, we can try to negotiate with them…or at least postpone the leave of the pandas until we can figure something out."

"Yes ma'am, let me alert the staff." Nadine stood, preparing to leave when Elizabeth snatched her hand.

"Wait…don't you need to eat?" There was genuine concern in the Secretary's eyes.

"I had a few bites, I can eat later." She said, but made no immediate move to pull away from Elizabeth's hold.

"If you're sure…"

"I am, thank you ma'am."

" _Thank you, Nadine."_

She smiled, and gathered her things before making her leave. She approached the conference room, which held the rest of the staff, who were still eating. She used to sit here with them until one day Elizabeth called her in to talk during lunch and since it had somehow become a custom for them to share their lunch hour together. To be honest, she preferred Elizabeth's company because sometimes the didn't have to talk…they would just sit in content silence. And if they did talk it wasn't small talk, Elizabeth despised small talk and Nadine was right there with her.

Entering the conference room she cleared her throat, "Sorry to interrupt but we have a major panda problem on our hands that needs to be resolved a.s.a.p."

"What do you need us to do?" Daisy asked.

"Make calls, figure out what the Chinese want, make sure the press doesn't get a hold of this."

"On it." Jay nodded, already pulling out his tablet.

"Thank you." She said, before making her way back to her own office. She set her noodles and binder on her desk before grabbing a few other items that might be of use and heading back to Elizabeth's office. She felt sympathy for her boss, nobody wanted to work Christmas Eve. But with something this big they couldn't risk the Secretary of State being out of office.

When she entered Elizabeth's office, she found the blonde woman in a rather intense call with who she presumed was the Chinese Embassy. Elizabeth signaled for Nadine to pick up the other phone and she did as asked, listening to the Chinese Minister go off on her friend. After a few dozen seconds she was fuming at the man, and truly admired Elizabeth's restraint in lashing out at him.

Elizabeth somehow managed to keep her cool as she deflected his words and continued to try and negotiate her way through the conversation…but with no such luck. With a sour goodbye the Minister hung up with a click, and Elizabeth dropped the phone onto her desk.

Nadine too set back her line of the phone and made her way over to Elizabeth's desk, "Now what?"

"Now we try to find out what he wants from others, because he obviously isn't going to tell us."

Nodding, Nadine's gaze fell on the window behind her boss. Flakes of snow were drifting down from the sky and were already beginning to coat the windowsill. Elizabeth noticed her gaze and turned to look as well, "Looks like I won't be going home anytime soon." She sighed.

"Ma'am don't say that, they can plow through it."

Elizabeth offered an unconvinced smile in turn, "Let's go figure out how to keep these pandas."

"Yes ma'am."

 _Time leap_

Three hours later and they had made zero progress towards retrieving the pandas. They had searched records, listened to old calls, and even called China's neighboring nations. Nothing. They simply could not figure out what China wanted that the USA wasn't giving them. They had moved from the conference room to Elizabeth's office because it was warmer in the smaller space. Blake, Nadine, and Elizabeth sat at the desk, Daisy on the couch and Matt and Jay lay on the floor…all still with binders in front of them.

The snow now completely obscured any view of the outside world but the news reporter had said multiple times that it was practically impossible for anyone to drive in this weather. They also stated that there would be no use in plowing the roads until the snowstorm had subsided. Elizabeth had called her family and apologized over and over even as they insisted that it was okay.

Daisy's binder snapping closed broke the otherwise smothering silence, "Who wants hot cocoa?" She asked, standing from the couch.

Everyone looked up at her in confusion, minus Matt, who instantly replied with a zealous, "I do!"

"I just need to get up a stretch for a moment." Daisy explained at Elizabeth's questioning gaze. "So who else wants cocoa?"

"I could go for some." Jay agreed.

"Could you do mine with almond milk?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, sure." Daisy nodded.

"Thanks."

"What about you? Nadine? Madam Secretary?"

Nadine and Elizabeth exchanged glances, as if trying to consult each other on what to say. Almost in chorus they shrugged and said, "Yeah, okay, sure."

"Great! I'll be right back." Daisy smiled.

"Thank you Daisy." Elizabeth said softly.

"Of course ma'am." And with that she left the room.

"I'm going to go look for some more binders." Matt announced, standing up and stretching his sore back.

"I really am sorry for this." Elizabeth says for the hundredth time that night.

"Ma'am, it isn't your fault, plus the State Department is warmer then my apartment so I don't really mind." Matt said, and before she could object he had left to look for the binders.

The staff resumed their work of scanning through possible offers they could sway China with. Ten minutes later, Daisy returned, balancing the mugs of hot chocolate on a tray. "They're a bit hot, so be careful." She warned, setting a mug in front of each person.

Just as she began to sit down again, Matt returned, a large box in his hands. "Do we need that many binders?" Nadine asked, her voice strained.

"Then what's that?" Daisy inquired.

"See, what I _did find was Christmas decorations." He said, opening the box, "Figured the State Department could use some Christmas flair."_

"Oooh! Are there lights?!" Daisy asked, immediately making her way over to the box.

"Yep, tinsel, ornaments, lights, everything."

"I was wondering where that stuff had gone, we haven't seen it in years." Jay commented, taking a tin sip of his cocoa to make sure it wasn't scalding hot.

"We could decorate…if that's alright ma'am."

"I…" She looked around to see her staff's hopeful gazes, even Blake looked like a part of him wanted to take part in the festivity. "Yeah, I guess we are out of binders so there's no hurt in decorating." She shrugged.

The staff scurried over to the box of decorations, and began rummaging through. Daisy pulled out a string of golden white lights and brought them to an outlet to make sure they worked. Blake hesitantly stood back and watched a Jay removed a wreath and marveled at how it was still in good condition. Matt and Daisy had now taken to untangling the lights and bickering about who was making the knots worse.

Nadine and Elizabeth sat and watched them with amusement, "It's a sweet sight." Elizabeth said quietly.

Nadine considered the statement a moment before nodding, "Yeah…it is."

They continued to watch the staff buzz around the room, stringing lights on the tree in the corner of the room, and hanging evergreen strands on the mantle. Nadine was contently sipping her cocoa now and without her knowledge, being watched by Elizabeth.

Elizabeth often found herself admiring her Chief of Staff without her knowledge but this time she was fully aware of her stare. But she simply couldn't look away, not with the way the Christmas lights were casting a golden glow over Nadine's cheeks and tinting her hair. There was a sort of beauty in the way she sat curled up in the chair, legs tucked beneath her and mug clutched in two hands. How could anyone be that beautiful and not know it? Nadine must've sensed her gaze because she turned her head to look at the Secretary. Elizabeth could have sworn Nadine's eyes sparkled brighter then the lights.

Nadine smiled at Elizabeth, before turning her attention back to the rest of the staff, who by this point, had untangled the lights and were lacing them up the tree. Finishing the rest of her cocoa, she set the mug on the desk and went on watching Jay and Blake set up a small set of aluminum angels. There was an odd sort of comfort that filled her chest as she watched them. Maybe it was because she had never gotten to experience this with her own son or perhaps it was the child like nature coming out in the younger staff. Whatever the reason, it made a smile spread across her lips.

"Look!" Daisy giggled, "Mistletoe!"

"Oh no! I don't think so." Elizabeth laughed, "Hang mistletoe here and you'll have poor Blake kissing practically everyone who walks in."

"That doesn't sound desirable." Blake said.

"Let's go hang it on the elevator." Matt chuckled.

"Yes!" Jay and Daisy chorused, and off they went, Blake and Matt in toe.

"They did a good job." Nadine commented, gesturing to the Christmas tree, which was strung with lights and golden ornaments. A bundle of tinsel was stuck at the top to represent a tree topper.

"They really did." Elizabeth smiled, standing from her chair and walking towards the sparkling tree. Nadine followed.

The staff burst in, singing Deck the Halls with reindeer horns on their heads, sending Nadine and Elizabeth into peals of laughter. As they finished off in a badly timed fa la la la la la la la, Elizabeth grasped for Nadine to support her she was laughing so hard. Nadine, equally weakened from relentless laughter, lowered Elizabeth to the floor so she could lean against the couch. Alas, as hard as she might try, Elizabeth could not stop laughing and so she buried her head in Nadine's hair still shaking with laughter.

Nadine too was trying her best to calm down, but the staff's expressions were doing nothing to help. It was a mix between evil smirking and chipmunk…evil chipmunks, a thought which sent her over again. Clutching Elizabeth's upper arm, she willed herself to take a few shaky breaths and calm down. Finally, she managed to get a hold on herself and Elizabeth was getting there. "I think you broke the Secretary." Nadine said breathlessly.

"I'm…I'm…okay…I'm…" Nope. She was overcome with laughter again.

"Shhh…Elizabeth, calm yourself." Nadine insisted, not noticing Elizabeth's name slip past her lips.

"Evil chipmunks Nadine, they look like evil chipmunks." She was gasping for air now.

"Don't say that. I will start laughing again too."

"Deep breaths." Elizabeth told herself, "Deep breaths."

After a few breaths, Elizabeth managed to regain her breath and stop laughing. "You guys! You nearly made me have a heart attack!" Elizabeth shook her head, smile splitting across her face.

"Do you need some water?" Blake asked, always the first to be concerned.

"Actually yeah." Elizabeth nodded, "Two glasses if you could Blake."

"Yes ma'am." Blake nodded, leaving hastily.

"Who wants shots?" Matt asked with a smirk.

Before Elizabeth could object, the three of them shot from the room. "Should we stop them?" Elizabeth asked.

"Nah, they don't have to work tomorrow, let them have some fun." Nadine shrugged, leaning her head on the back of the couch.

"That was good."

"What was?"

"Laughing."

"Yes…it was." Nadine agreed.

"We should laugh more often…you should laugh more often."

"Oh?" She looked over at Elizabeth.

"Yeah, you have a nice laugh."

"That's nice of you to say ma'am."

"Mmm." Elizabeth closed her eyes.

"If you're tired you can always sleep on the couch."

"Not sleeping, just resting." Elizabeth replied.

"Okay." Nadine nodded, her eyes closing as well.

When Blake returned with two glasses of water he found the two women sound asleep and slumped against the couch. Elizabeth had a protective arm wrapped around Nadine's shoulders, holding her close, and Nadine's head was resting upon the blonde woman's shoulder. It was quite an endearing sight Blake thought as he set the glasses of water on the table. He proceeded to lay a blanket across their laps and switch off the lights, leaving only the Christmas tree to illuminate their sleeping faces.

Maybe it wasn't the Christmas Eve anyone had anticipated but it was by far one of the best. Because no one wants to spend Christmas alone, and nobody did.

 **Hey guys! Merry Christmas! I hope you liked this fic, I worked all day to get it done in time for Christmas lol.**


End file.
